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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Observations - Free

I like free stuff and most people do. But, is free the best way to run run something? Is free education, free healthcare, free school lunches, or free services a good idea? I don't think so. Why? Here is what I think:

* Nothing is free. Someone is paying for it though it might not be the "user".
* People do not value what is free for them.
* Nor valuing something encourages laziness, abuse, and indifference.
* Thus free leads to stagnation or decay, not growth or improvement.

What is wrong with our education system? It's free which then produces many of the other problems we have. What is wrong with our healthcare system? It's usually not paid for by the user, but a third party giving the illusion of it being free, which then produces many of the problems we have.

So how can we fix it? Make the user pay in some fashion. What if parents had to pay for the education of their children? We would have one of the best education systems in the world (like our college system). What about those who could not afford the tuition? Then vouchers would be the way to go because the user is still "paying" for what they want, not settling for what is free. What if patients had to pay for all their healthcare costs? Our healthcare system would be transformed overnight. What about insurance and those who could not afford the care? What if insured patients were only covered for major medical and had high deductibles? Then unnecessary procedures would not be performed and doctors and hospitals would have to work hard to earn a patients business rather than knowing that the insurance company would just pay anyway. For those who could not afford insurance, a medical voucher system would be a good way to have the user in control.

The bottom line is to have users paying in anyway possible for what they use. Free (and any form of free) just leads to stagnation, decay, and a host of problems. Free doesn't work.